An Infinite Circle of Circles

     “No! Silly! That’s not how you cut it, this is how you cut it!”

     Rose (Rosie since she was three) yanked the yellow construction paper out of Jack’s surprised hands. He raised his eyebrows up at her and grinned, as she took a ruler and traced out a narrow strip. After making sure it was the same width all along its length, she took up pink-handled scissors and began carefully cutting down the line. A perfect rectangle fell to the floor as the scissors reached the edge of the paper. Jack picked it up.

     “Wait!” she said, opening her hands in the universal stop symbol. Rosie searched beneath the scattered sheets and scraps of colored construction paper and found the link she was looking for. It was a similar strip, made from red paper, formed into a circle. “There. Okay, now you can make the link.”

     Jack nodded and took the formed circle in his hand, looping the strip Rosie had cut around it, taping the edges closed, making the second link. He held the pair up for her inspection: she grinned and giggled, and kissed him quickly and unexpectedly on the lips. It left him a bit dazed, but she was too excited about making more strips and links to notice what she had done. He noticed she was blushing and smiled, and followed her example, making more strips and looping them around the growing chain.

     By midnight their chain was long enough to loop around the room.

     “Just one more, to close it, like a necklace,” Rosie muttered as she picked up the last remaining rectangle of color and looped it around the two ends. She taped it, and the chain was complete—an infinite circle of circles.

     “Do you like it?” he asked finally, carefully wrapping his arms around her.
     “Mhm,” she nodded, smiling, and sinking into him.

     Standing in the middle of their colored chain, they kissed.